Our future is not capitalism, but the new world of the victorious Socialist Revolution and the construction of socialism-communism

Declaration of August (2017) of the participants in the International Theoretical Conference of Communist and Workers parties; "100 years after the Great October Socialist Revolution, the lessons and tasks for the contemporary communists"

Our future is not capitalism, but the new world of the victorious Socialist Revolution and the construction of socialism-communism.

We, the participants in the international conference, which met in Leningrad during the celebrations of the 6th Congress of the RSDLP (B), which adopted a line of immediately preparing the armed struggle for the socialist revolution, present this declaration as the joint position of the parties, which base themselves on Marxism-Leninism-the teachings on the socialist revolution, as an objective scientific law that is determined by the unresolved contradictions of global capitalism.

Great October of 1917 confirmed the correctness of the Marxist-Leninist theory regarding the inevitability of the socialist revolution as a crucially necessary element for the victory of the proletariat in the class struggle against the bourgeois class and the successful construction of socialism and victory of full communism, a society for the free development of all its members. All the efforts to escape from a world dominated by capital through gradual social reforms lead in various ways only to the perpetuation of social inequality and the perfection of the forms of exploitation.

October 1917 confirmed that correctness of Lenin's analysis about the victory of the socialist revolution in the conditions of imperialism "first in several or even in one capitalist country alone." In contrast to all the previous revolutions that led to a change from one exploitative formation to another, the socialist revolution is not completed, but begins with the conquest of political power-the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat as a necessary condition for the victory of the proletariat in the continuing struggle for the construction of socialism and full communism, for the repression of the resistance of the exploiting classes, which have been overthrown, of the counterrevolutionary elements and the protection from the threat of foreign imperialist aggression.

The path taken for the first time by the Paris Commune is the path of the vanguard. Communism, from the spectre described by Marx and Engels in the 19th century, began its real journey with the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia. Socialism in one country was expanded in the 2nd half of the 20th century into a global system and the Soviet Union became the world's second super power. In constant struggle against external and internal enemies, in the deadly struggle against fascism, against the world of oppression and obscurantism, it created a new world without exploitation and parasitism, a society of freedom and justice. During the 70 years of its existence, the Soviet Union was a beacon, shedding light on the path of the oppressed peoples; it was a call for the proletariat to rise up in the struggle for their emancipation.

Great October Socialist Revolution started the crisis of the capitalist colonial system that further developed after the Soviet Union’s victory in the II World War and finally led to the destruction of this whole system.

We are resolute to maintain our stand for the solidarity with peoples that have been struggling to defend their countries’ independence and sovereignty against aggressive imperialist politics because communists always link this struggle to the struggle of working class against the power of capital both in their countries and world wide.

The theory of scientific socialism and the practice of building socialism in the 20th and 21st centuries has convincingly demonstrated that the power established as a result of the victory of the socialist revolution, in its essence, can only be the dictatorship of the proletariat, i.e. the power of the working class which it does not share with any other class and at the same time it expresses the interests of all the workers and for this reason is actively supported by them.

The Great October Socialist Revolution established Soviet Power as a form of workers' power in the country. Even the day after the revolution on November 7 1917 and the overthrow of the Provisional Government of the Bourgeoisie, at the Second Congress of the Soviets of Workers, Peasant and Military Delegates, Soviet Power was proclaimed, the essence of which is the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Soviets emerged as organs of the workers' struggle in Tsarist Russia. Initially as organs of an economic and then a political struggle for the establishment of worker's power. After the revolution, the Soviets were a ready organizational form for the implementation of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The 3rd Russian, October Revolution of 1917, was a socialist revolution in terms of its content (social, economic and political) and resolved, first of all, a number of democratic issues, which Soviet Power had inherited from the reactionary absolutist tsarist state. However, from the outset, the October Revolution engaged with resolving fundamental issues, which neither absolutism nor bourgeois democracy could or wanted to resolve. The first decrees of the Soviet government were decrees for peace, land, the formation of the workers'-peasants' government, for full power to the Soviets. It also issued decrees for the abolition of casts and titles, for the nationalization of the banks, the railways, communications, and a number of big businesses, as well as for workers' control and others.

The Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia was approved on the 15th of November 1917, which proclaimed:

-Equality and sovereignty of peoples of Russia.

-Right of peoples of Russia of a free self-determination, including secession and formation of a separate state.

-Abolition of all national and religious privileges and restrictions.

-Free development of national minorities and ethnic groups populating the territory of Russia.

Thus, Soviet Power from its first steps implemented the socialist content of the slogans, which the Bolsheviks used to stir up the people for the revolution:"Power to the Soviets!", "Land to the peasants", "The factories to the workers", 'Peace for the peoples!" “Eight hours working day for working people!”. Therefore, in the political sense, as regards the conquest of power and its consolidation through the immediate measures of the October Socialist Revolution, this can and should be characterized as being Soviet.

The global historical importance, which the Russian working class discovered and is related to the organizational form of the dictatorship of the proletariat, is to be found in the fact that the Council (Soviet) bases its formation and functioning on objective reality, on the organization of the workers in the process of social production, and consequently safeguards the essence of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Soviets are elected by the workers' collectives, permeate society as a unified network, safeguarded the proletarian character of power, the control and regulation of power by the workers' masses.

The basic content of the Soviets everywhere and always is accompanied by practical measures, which the Paris Commune had already made some first attempts at, in its efforts to make the workers the real masters of society. The experience of the Paris Commune demonstrated, as well as the entire experience of the Soviet Union, the irreplaceable role of the revolutionary party of the working class as the vanguard of the class, which leads the construction of a new society. It fully maintains the importance of the Leninist theory on the party, that "there can be no revolutionary movement without a revolutionary party". This party was the party of the Bolsheviks, the party of Lenin-Stalin. Under its leadership, many fundamental and exceptionally important issues were solved in the Soviet Union. Issues that have never essentially been solved and cannot be solved by any capitalist country. This is also borne out by the experience of the fraternal parties of the other socialist countries. Specifically, the issue of full employment was solved, free education, medical care, the use of the achievements of science and culture were ensured. In the USSR, accommodation, public utilities, transport, etc. were in practice almost free. In no capitalist country was human safety at such a high level as it was in the Soviet Union. The USSR had the lowest retirement age in the world.

The experience of the USSR has already convincingly demonstrated the correctness of the programmatic directions of the Marxist-Leninist party, which were formulated by Marx and Engels in the "Communist Manifesto" for the socialist socialization of the basic means of production, as one of the most important general laws of the socialist revolution. While the experience of the Great October Socialist Revolution demonstrated in practice that after the conquest of state power by the working class what follows is the task of expropriating the expropriators and the ownership of all the economic sectors in the country, something which is necessary for the eradication of the economic dominance of the bourgeoisie, and so that the economic base can be placed under the dictatorship of the proletariat-the social ownership of the means of production, without which the working class cannot maintain political power and carry out the socialist transformation. The economic base of the implementation, reinforcement and development of Soviet power as a form of the dictatorship of the proletariat is the social ownership of the means of production, the production of use values, with the aim of safeguarding the full social welfare and free all-sided development of all the members of society.

Not the self-expansion of value, not surplus value, but the safeguarding of the complete prosperity and free all-sided development of all the members of society is the goal of socialist production. The rejection of this goal, the turn to the market leads to the destruction of socialism, as the commodity economy of the market cannot be the economic basis of workers' power. The full commodity economy is capitalism, the basis for the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.

Marxist-Leninist theory does not put forward detailed formulas and ideal models for the future society. Marx and Engels wrote that communism is not a situation which will be established, is not an ideal to which reality must conform, but a real dynamic which destroys the current state of affairs, which is unjust and slows down the development of society.

The need of the proletariat for its own state is determined by the task of repressing acts that are in opposition to the interests of the working class, interests which express in essence the interests of all the sections of the working people. As long as classes exist, the state is an organ, a tool for the dictatorship of the ruling class. As such, the need for a state of the dictatorship of the proletariat withers away only through the achievement of the final goal of the communists: the complete eradication of classes, i.e., the differences between the city and village, between manual and intellectual labour, the complete construction of full communism, the disappearance of the threat of the capitalist offensive, not only from inside but from outside as well.

The ideological and political degeneration of the highest levels of the state apparatus, the revision of Marxism-Leninism, which initially happened at the 20th and 22nd Congresses of the CPSU, culminating in Gorbachev's Perestroika, the rejection of the fundamental principles of communist construction in theory and in practice, the increase of careerism and bureaucracy, led to the counterrevolution and the restoration of capitalism, which was completed in the USSR during the 1990s.The destruction of socialism in the USSR and the creation of a group of smaller bourgeois states in its place was carried out with the support of international imperialism. In many countries, a large dark wave of anticommunism and antisovietism, of persecution was unleashed against the CPs and communists, which continues up until today, with the USA and EU playing a leading role, with the participation in essence of all the bourgeois governments as well.

In these conditions, the communists openly state: Anticommunism and Antisovietism will not succeed! The counterrevolutions of the last 30 years do not alter the character of our era, which remains the era of the passage from capitalism to socialism. Therevolution cannot be stopped! The counterrevolution is inevitably followed by revolution! The communists are always revolutionaries!

In recent years, the trend for important changes in the correlation of forces between the capitalist states became more apparent, under the impact of the law of uneven capitalist development. The USA remains the first economic and military power, but with a significant reduction of its share in the Gross World Product, while the EU plays an important role in the global developments, as well as other powers where capitalist relations of production prevail, such as the BRICS countries, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The inter-imperialist contradictions, which led in past to dozens of local, regional and to two world wars, continue to lead to harsh conflicts, economic, political and military, over raw materials, energy, transport routes, market shares. In this struggle, a leading role is usually played by the war machines of the USA and NATO, as well as other capitalist powers, like Israel in the region of the Middle East.

In addition, the savage offensive against the labour and social rights of the workers all over the world continues. Their ideological weapons are the neo-liberal and social-democratic theories about social and class collaboration, social peace, and the exhaustion of the possibility for revolutions. This arsenal is added to by revisionism and opportunism, which have become weapons guided by imperialism.

At the same time, humanity cannot develop to the benefit of the working class and popular strata on the basis of production, which is supported on private ownership.

Life and human development cannot be restricted by the size of ownership or by the desire of some individuals to be masters, while others serve them. The international communist movement has the task of strengthening the efforts to develop the class struggle for the interests of the working class. The communists state to the entire world in relation to the bourgeois slogans about a "globalized world", and in relation to the slogans of state nationalism: only the struggle against imperialism with the prospect of constructing socialism and full communism, only the course began by the Great October Socialist Revolution is the path of humanity to real freedom and equality, in the sense of the elimination of any possibility of any form of exploitation, the eradication of classes, the fraternity and happiness of all the peoples, as well as the preservation of life on earth itself.

The realignment of the international communist movement, the way out from today's crisis and retreats, the formation of a unified strategy on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, the recognition of the role and contribution of the USSR, the recognition of the necessity for the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and the construction of the new socialist-communist society. This is an urgent task , the implementation of which is required by the current conditions of the struggle against the intensifying offensive of the monopolies and bourgeois governments against labour rights, the further reactionary turn of capitalism, including the revival of fascism, and the constant danger of the emergence of flash-points of imperialist war. The international struggle against the imperialist wars is important today for the communist movement. One of our most important tasks is the unwavering struggle against revisionism and opportunism in all its forms, as the main danger inside the communist movement. The revolutions do not have boundaries; they do not happen according to the will of leaders and parties, but express the objective interests and irrepressible desire of the vanguard class, the oppressed and exploited peoples to take ownership of the results of their own labour in relation to the development of the forces of production in society, the creation of material and intellectual benefits for all.

Let the ideas and achievements of Great October live for centuries! Workers and the exploited, oppressed peoples must rise up in the struggle to eradicate the rotten exploitative capitalist system, to construct socialism and then full communism. This is the only alternative solution for the inevitable and brighter future for all humanity.

Long live the Soviet Socialist Revolution! For communism all over the world!